Chronicle of Nautilus

Chapter 42: The Heroes

Tom got into the cab and said, “Destination - third floor, main entrance to base alpha. Connect me to Julian Shaw.”  The cab jumped up and sped towards the sun. 

Julian’s image projected inside the cab came up. He asked, “What is it Tom? I heard the explosions.”

“It has begun. I want Tim to go out and disturb our enemy as much as possible. Together we can get him.”

Julian replied, “Understood. He will do everything what he can.” and his image turned off.

The cab landed and Tom jumped out. He rushed towards the main entrance of Ermac’s base, passing a few bruised bodies with laser shot wounds on his way. The metal gate was still closed, but it had a small round hole in the center. Sounds of lasers blasting came through it. Tom inspected four bodies lying on the ground. Only well trained and tuned up attacker could have done this, he figured.

 Tom picked a small lase-gun from a hand of one of the dead. He approached the door controls, brushed two fingers through a scanner and said his name. The gate opened.

He ran forward, taking notice of damaged security drones on the ground. Two round balls floated in the distance, blasting everything in their path. He watched the walls of force fields disappear after the touch of the intruding drones. Sophistication of their equipment and weaponry surprised Tom. He sped up and ran at the inhuman speed.

Both drones turned and greeted him with open fire. He rushed to the right and positioned himself in such way that one drone would cover another. At the beginning, the laser projectiles were unavoidable even for Tom, but after his senses adapted to his speed. The movement of the drones became slow and predictable. Now he could anticipate the incoming shots with ease and dodge them before they were even fired.  

When Tom had both drones in a precise, single he rushed towards them. The closer he got the easier it was to see and predict their movements. Tom ran and jumped and ducked without losing speed. Two seconds passed and the orbs were in his reach. He threw his hand forward. Its acceleration multiplied by weight produced such force that the drone closer to him, sent flying, managed to pierce the drone behind it and slam the wall at least twenty meters away.

Tom looked at the drone lying by the far wall of the room and mumbled “Don’t you. Don’t you dare… “

The drone moved up from the ground as if nothing had happened and flew up towards the ceiling. It trailed the ceiling to get to the closed entrance of Navigator’s base. It ignored Tom and shot laser projectiles to the security drones that came out from the walls, the floor and the ceiling. 

Tom followed the drone, shot at it a couple of times, and watched in awe as the fire from his lase-gun was reflected. The sophistication of the drone was more than impressive. Drones were often manufactured to protect places from human intruders. The ones he encountered here were designed to counter complex security systems.

After shutting down Stacy, Tom had built the security system in this place base in such a way that it would stop any human from getting in no matter how powerful he was, human, but not war machine.

Tom followed the drone and shouted, “Turn off plasma lines. Turn on the plasma line number 1, transfer all energy into it.”

The thin beams of plasma light at the end of the hall turned off. Ten thin vertical lines appeared a meter away from the entrance to the Navigator’s base. Their luminosity and diameter increased until they formed an impenetrable wall. An annoying loud hissing came from the wall after the beams became so thick that they touched each other. The drone had no way to enter Ermac’s base now. It continued its path of destruction, killing all security system’s drones in its path, leaving a wide line of scrap behind. When drone got close to the plasma wall it stopped and did a short brief scan, beeping a few times. It then turned around and went for the exit on maximum velocity, making a wide arc, attempting to avoid Tom. Yet for Tom it moved as a turtle. He grabbed a couple of heavy nuts from the scrap lying on the ground and sped towards the machine. After a couple of seconds he was already beneath it. The drone attempted to make unpredictable move and it's change direction but it did not help. Tom followed it as if he was its shadow. He threw one nut after another to the drone. Both nuts flew at the bullet speed, whistling along the way. After the impact the drone shattered to pieces and hit the ceiling before falling to the ground. Tom approached it and kicked it a little. Increasing the small level of satisfaction he got from showing the drone its place.